Ever since guitarist John McLaughlin formed the 4th Dimension—his first electric fusion band in a decade—fans have been hoping he'd dig a little further into his back catalog. The wait is over with The Boston Record, a live album recorded in 2013 at Boston's Berklee College of Music. This isn't 4th Dimension's first live album, though it is the first to feature the seven year-old group's current configuration. Ranjit Barot, first heard with McLaughlin on Floating Point (Abstract Logix, 2009), replaced drummer Mark Mondesir on Now Here This (Abstract Logix, 2013), and is as outrageously virtuosic as ever; the equally impressive bassist Etienne Mbappe is back too, as is serious double-threat keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband.

Deep Purple need no introduction as one of the all-time great British rock bands. Their association with Montreux goes back to the early seventies, when their attempt to record their album "Machine Head" at the Montreux Casino was thwarted when it promptly burnt down, forcing them to make the album in the rooms and corridors of the Grand Hotel instead…

''Good Time Warrior'' is the sixth album by Lucifer's Friend, an album in which Mike Starrs, formerly of Colosseum II, replaced John Lawton on vocals for the first time. This album and the following Sneak Me In (1980) were an attempt at a more commercial, mainstream style which met with limited commercial success. Starrs was eventually replaced by the returning Lawton for 1981's Mean Machine.

Recorded over a 13-year time span (1992–2005), this is a remarkable disc. On first glance, it screams “specialist.” A whole hour-plus of music by territory-specific composers for clarinet or bass clarinet and cello may send many prospective purchasers heading in the opposite direction. But they would be forgetting the innate musicality of the Finns.

Italian composer and organist Bernardo Storace was the assistant music director of the senate in the city of Messina in the second half of the seventeenth century. Here, Jörg Halubek, a young organist who won the first prize in organ at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig in 2004, plays a selection from Storace’s variations on well-known dances and melodies of the time.

This unusual coupling of the violin concertos by Aram Khachaturian and Samuel Barber, entitled Two Souls, is tailor-made for Mikhail Simonyan’s exciting DG debut. Born in Novosibirsk, Simonyan has mixed Russian and Armenian parentage, but spent his formative years in the US. Simonyan's close rapport with Kristjan Järvi and his first collaboration with one of the world’s best orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra, produce an extraordinarily fresh reading of the two concertos.

Sensing the electricity between two jazz instrumentalists ‘in conversation’ can be both fascinating and revealing – and when musicians of the calibre of Joachim Kuhn and Alexey Kruglov join forces, it’s a safe bet that a sensory display of fireworks is in the offing. Certainly, in the case of this new release, Moscow, it’s a pretty special coming together for the pianist and alto saxophonist as part of ACT’s expanding Duo Art series.

Bob Dylan & Joan Baez - Voices Of A Generation [2CD] (2013) {Not Now Music}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 507 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 274 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 89 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Not Now Music | NOT2CD501
Rock / Blues / Folk / World

Not sure how I came to think this was a double cd of Bob and Joan dueting but I did. It is essentially the first album, both self titled, of Bob Dylan (1962) and Joan Baez (1960) with bonus tracks making a total of 33. No duets. This was the disappointment for me. However the inside liner notes were interesting, even with a couple of typos, and I came to appreciate the double album more. Of the two albums disc 2 featuring Joan Baez has worn the best but both albums are good and hold up well more than 50 years later. Just don't expect any duets or where the two appear on a single song together. There is of course Bob Dylan Live 1964 (Bootleg Series 6) where the two appear in concert for four songs. A promoter's dream not happening somehow….

Sony International's Pop & Wave, Vol. 4 collects two discs' worth of poppy new wave tracks by some of the biggest names as well as some one-hit wonders and very obscure groups too…